Determining what made fierce Unionists of some southerners is not always easy. Was it class? religion? distance from the cotton belt? In the case of Unionists who lived on the borders of Randolph and Montgomery counties, in the North Carolina Piedmont, the answer is easy: it was all three. Several interrelated families in this region–principally the Hulins, Moores, Beamans, and Hurleys–were nonslaveholding yeoman farmers who lived in the heart of North Carolina’s Quaker Belt and outside the South’s plantation belt. They were also devout members of the antislavery Wesleyan Methodist Church, which grew in numbers throughout the 1850s (for more on this community, click here).

I wrote about these families in my first book, Unruly Women (Chapel Hill, UNC Press, 1992), and I return to their story in the forthcoming Long Shadow of the Civil War. Recently, I got in touch with Linda Beaulieu of the Montgomery Herald in Troy, NC, who graciously put me in touch with Elaine Reynolds, the keeper of the Hulin family papers. It was Elaine who generously provided me with the photos that accompany this post. She also sent me an essay written by Hulin/Moore descendant Thoburn Freeman, which was originally published in Winnie Richter’s Heritage of Montgomery County, NC (1981). I quoted from this essay in Unruly Women, and I am happy to quote from it again here on Renegade South.

The lives of these men and women differed greatly from those of wealthy slaveholders:

During the years before the civil War, the people lived quietly, going about their affairs with pride and purpose. The men were busy clearing land, building fences, homes, schools, and churches. The women were busy carding, spinning and weaving, not to mention cooking on open fire with coals on the hearth, tending children and house cleaning. Everyone worked in the fields. . . . In the fall, they would hold their Camp Meetings, when the families would move out and live in “tents” constructed of logs and later, boards.

“Everyone worked the fields” meant women and children as well as men. Making a living from the soil was a family endeavor that required the hard labor of all. Still, they enjoyed family visits back and forth, which included “quiltings, log-rollings, corn shuckings, spelling bees, and, in some communities, dancing.” Then came the war . . . .

During the war, most social activities, even hunting, were interrupted and came to a halt, except for some of the older men and young boys. All were afraid of the bands of Rebels that roamed the countryside. The church at Lovejoy was Wesleyan at the time, and their ministers preached against slavery. One preacher, Adam Crooks, was arrested in the pulpit. . . . Since most of the people in the area were opposed to slavery and not in sympathy with the Southern Cause, many men chose to hide out and were called “Outlyers” by the Rebels. Among them were 3 sons of Hiram and Nancy Sexton Hulin: Jessie, John, and William.

The men relied on the aid of women to elude capture by Confederate soldiers and vigilantes (Carolina Hulin, pictured above, was the wife of Jessie). One cold January morning, their luck ran out. . . .

Near the end of the war, the three Hulin brothers were arrested and held for several days in an old mill house near Uwharrie. Then without proper trial, in the early morning hours of January 28, 1865, with a light snow on the ground, they were taken to Buck Mountain and shot to death–less than four months before Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered. The bodies were loaded onto a wagon and taken to Lovejoy Church by their father, Hiram Hulin [for more on Hiram, click here]. . . . The only offense the boys were guilty of was: they obeyed their conscience, which is the only personal contact we have with God–

Post navigation

Hello, I found you site to be very interesting. My cousin lives in Spindale and does a lot of research and was telling me we were related to some of those killed in the Shelton-Laurel Massacre.

She was also telling me our GGG Grandfather, Josiah B. Gosnell, of Glassy Mt. SC was very much against slavery but was drafted in the Confederate Army. He deserted and took his family to Kansas, TN (present day Dandridge I believe). It is said he and his family helped runaway slaves go north. I also believe he was captured and imprisoned for about a year and his family struggled to survive. They would later move back to Greenville County, SC. Was wondering if you had come across his name at any time during your research. Thanks.

I’m pleased that you like the site. Thanks so much for sharing the story of your GGGgrandfather with us. I’ve not heard of him, but his story certainly belongs on Renegade South! I will keep an eye open for his name in any of the books on southern Unionists. In the meantime, do you have any documents on his life and Civil War experiences that might be useful to historians? I’m thinking that we might be able to post them, either here or over at Southern Unionists Chronicles.

I’m starting to realize there was more of a class struggle in the deeper South and how it played into dissent for the Confederacy. I don’t quite see it as much in Virginia. I’m currently reading David Williams’ book on dissent in Georgia. It’s an excellent work…

I really like David Williams’ work too. He and I are in agreement about the importance of class struggle in many of these inner civil wars of the South. To be sure, there are other factors such as kinship, religion, and local feuds, but in all three communities that I researched, class differences were evident.

I completed a dissertation that covered (in part) NC and the Whig/Tory fueding of the Revolutionary War, esp. from 1780-1783. I now get very interested in NC’s problems with internal dissent during the Civil War, which so far to me seems very similar to the 18th century. I wish I had time to read more and make a better comparison. I used “The Free State of Jones” for a little detail on Ephraim Knight. As you surely know, in 1781 he petitioned Governor Thomas Burke for release from his confinement, as he had been arrested in Virginia for attempting to pass counterfeit money.

It’s very good to hear from you, and I am quite interested in your dissertation. I have always been fascinated by the connections between the Whig/Tory Revolutionary feuding you speak of and internal dissent during the Civil War. My book, UNRULY WOMEN, included Civil War dissenters from the North Carolina Piedmont, but the Civil War dissenters of Jones County, Mississippi (the Free State of Jones) have the same basic ancestral roots as the North Carolina dissenters.

In regard to Ephraim Knight, I know very little beyond what I included in the FREE STATE OF JONES, and would love to know more. I don’t know if he is related to the Knights of Jones County, but I was intrigued by the possibility that he might be, or even that the two slaves he manumitted might be a clue to Knight views about slavery. I’d love to know the details of what all you have found about his life.

Your research interests certainly dovetail with mine, so perhaps we can share ideas or information.

Ephraim Knight in 1781 petitioned NC Governor Burke for release from his confinement there. Knight had been arrested in Virginia for attempting to pass counterfeit money there, but was released for lack of proof. Upon his relocation to Halifax, he was jailed for the same charge, much to the distress of his wife and “seven helpless Children, who are now suffering greatly.” The supplicant offered to give sufficient bail in exchange for his good behavior, in order to be released from his “unjust and unmerited confinement.” Burke, however, learned that Knight was then confined “on suspicion of being a Spy, employed by the Enemy,” and that there was proof of this readily available. In his rejection of Knight’s petition, he stated “during the present times I shall suffer no suspicious Character to be at large. The Calamities which the People of this Country have suffered in consequence chiefly of having such Characters amongst them makes this resolution necessary and Individuals who have behaved themselves in such a Manner as to become suspected, must submit to confinement, at least for their Conduct, so long as the Public safety requires it.”

Source: Petition of Ephraim Knight and Gov. Burke’s response, 3 September 1781, NCSR, 22:589-509. Ephraim Knight was eventually released from his imprisonment. In 1789, Knight was still living in Halifax County, where records show he manumitted two mulatto slaves, Richard and Alexander, that year.

Thanks for the additional information of Ephraim Knight, John. Sure sounds like there’s an article there, if one could find additional primary material and good contextual secondary sources. Are you planning to do more on him?

I have never “Google’d” my grandfather’s name, Thoburn M. Freeman before. I was suprised to find this page. He is also from North Carolina, Seagrove to be exact. He was married to Cora Pool, my grandmother (or mamaw). His name has been passed down to me, his is my middle name, and more recently to my son, Thoburn T. Freeman. Keeping with that we decided to name my daughter Cora R. Freeman…….interesting.

It’s nice to meet you, Timothy. You’re grandfather wrote very movingly about the inner civil war in Montgomery County, and most particularly about the killing of the Hulin brothers by Confederate vigilantes. My upcoming book, The Long Shadow of the Civil War, will feature an individual photograph (donated by Elaine Reynolds) of Caroline Moore Hulin, widow of Jesse Hulin.

Thanks for writing, and it’s good to know that the family names, as well as stories, live on.

The Hulins had more difficulty in that war. They moved in to Hardin Co Tn in about 1830. When the war broke out, C.H. Hulin joined the Union Army and died in a hospital in Memphis. Rubin Hulin (my great great grandad) and John Hulin join the CSA as did several more. They all were “kin” so you know there were hard feelings.

When they came into Tn they were Hughlings. How the name changed and why so many spellings is a puzzle!
(Hulin, Hulen, Hulan all in the same family!)

Very interesting, Roger. It’s makes the histories of these families so much more interesting when we can link them to other branches of the family and see the similarities of political stances, but also the differences. Yes, there must have been hard feelings between those who took Unionist vs Confederate stances. I wonder if those hard feelings influenced in any way the different spellings of the name? BTW, some years ago I communicated with a Dick Hulan (not sure anymore which spelling he used!) whose branch was in both Mississippi and Texas.

I enjoyed the picture of my cousins. On suggestion of Dick Hulan (my cousin) I read your book and enjoyed it! I have been researching the family tree since 1995 and have an extensive database (Hulin, Hulon, Hulen, Huling, Hulan). My GGGG Grandfather was Thomas Arthur Huling. His sister wed Arthur Huling Jr. I have them as third cousins. They were both of “the 4th generation”. I have used the 4th generation law as a way of untangeling some of the mystery. Perhaps of interest to you in your research is Thomas who went to Knoxville TN. He had two grandsons Arthur and Matthew who became Medical Doctors. Matthew made the Tennessee 1913 “who’s who” and wrote this about Thomas…”and belongs to a family which has been identified with eastern Tennessee for more than eighty years. The Hulings have always borne honorable records in all their relations with business and social life. Thomas A. Huling, the grandfather, came from North Carolina to Tennessee during the forties. He was born in North Carolina and lived to the advanced age of eighty-seven. He was married in North Carolina to Julia Holt, and they were the parents of ten children. A miller by trade, on locating in Knox County he spent most of the remaining years of his life in the operation of a mill near the present day village of Virtue, in that county. Although a Whig in politics and a Union sympathizer in the war, he operated his mill and supplied the women and children who came to his mill with flour and meal without any regard for the principles and sympathies represented by the persons in want. He and his wife were members of the Brethren or Dunkard denomination.”

Hello Doug, so nice to hear from another Huling (Hulin)! Please give my best to your cousin, Dick, who I corresponded with about Unruly Women years ago. Like you and other descendants of this remarkable family, Dick made me aware that the Hulins’ humane principles and sense of social responsibility extended far beyond one branch or one generation of Hulinses.

One of the reasons that my forthcoming book, The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies, includes two chapters on the Civil War in the Randolph/Montgomery/Moore County region of North Carolina is because I wanted to give renewed attention to the personal crisis faced by families like the Hulins: Southerners who opposed slavery and expressed those views openly in their Wesleyan-Methodist churches. (It is interesting to see that another branch embraced the Dunkard denomination, also a religion that placed the Hulins outside the mainstream of conventional political ideology.)

I found a similar such family–the Collinses of Jones County, Mississippi, and Hardin County, Texas (whose principles seem more grounded in political than religious ideology)–while researching my second book, The Free State of Jones. Nothing brings me greater joy as a historian than writing about “ordinary” folks who confronted political dogmas in service to a greater cause based on principles of humanity.

I will send regards to Dick and promise to avoid running a Hulin(g) dialogue takeover. I am enthusiastically looking forward to your future release and share your historical sentiment. I am currently focused on the beginning days for many multi-racial Americans, (Hulin(g)) included.

The years leading up to and following Bacon’s Rebellion and the English Revolution is where my time has been spent the last few months. It is during that era it appears our family first became “non-white”, and were apparantly convicted to political and religious commitments that were not mainstream and it is also from that time I set the counter to the generations where our first “legal marriages” occur.

Reading your work is helping me to bridge the gap seperated by so many generations and gain an insight into those first “Rebels”. Although seperated by nearly 190 years and 6 generations I am sensing similar social commitment and sincere resolve as the positions taken by Hiram Hulin, his closest associates and the followers of Nathaniel Bacon.

Like the Civil War I believe the depth of the circumstances of Bacon’s Rebellion are very complicated and take great effort to understand and untangle. There are more than just two sides to the story and unfortunately the third side is not told with the level of detail and authority as the “winner” and “loser”.

Write about the Hulins all you want! This blog is heavily weighted toward Mississippi, where I’ve done the bulk of my research, and I love it when folks interested in N.C. and Texas check in.

You know, as interested as I am in multiracial, multiethnic communities, I never realized that the Hulins had a multiracial past–I think Dick Hulan was the first to mention that to me.

I’m very interested as well in your research that connects Bacon’s Rebellion to the sort of conflicts that divided people during the Civil War. I made that connection myself in Free State of Jones, though not in Unruly Women.

By the time I began my research in Miss., I was aware of a long continuum of conflict between small farmers and larger planters based on land availability and the growth of slavery. Bacon’s rebellion, the Regulator movement, The Revolution, the Second Great Awakening: all were forces that divided rural southerners. Both groups moved from Virginia, to NC, to SC, and on to the southwesterm frontier, taking the conflict over farm vs plantation with them.

The explosion (Bacon’s Rebellion) in colonial Virginia dramatically marked a process that would eventually produce inner civil wars throughout the South during the Civil War. That’s why my next book highlights three different communities of dissent–in N.C., Miss., and Texas–to get a sense of the frontier progression over time of deep economic, but also cultural, ethnic, and religious, conflicts.

Please feel free to share more on Renegade South of what you discover in your own research.

I stumbled into a revelation at some point that the frequent moving by my ancestors and an absence of marriage records with my surname and often times “missing” census records were not an indicator that they had not had a marriage ceremony as we know it today, or that they had restlessness”, or that they were actually “missing” from where I knew they lived.

In other words when I studied Colonial and Early American law I discovered legal marriage between white and non-white citizens was illegal to the fourth generation. Absence of census records but presence in tax records….well that stimulated an awakening of understanding for me. I discovered two petitions in seperate States (Tennessee, and South Carolina) that was signed by Thomas Hulin and his children. Also signing were names such as Bass, Sweat…etc. I was aware of the published tax records in Granville County of Thomas, William, John and Edward Hulan with the same surrounding surnames geographically close by. And l knew they were sometimes listed as Mulatos or FPC (paying poll taxes). I was aware that a Thomas Hulin had a skirmish occur near his mill in Marion County South Carolina and that his wife Mabel or Milly (that he never LEGALLY married) was run-off their land for being a Tory/Loyalist in 1781 following the skirmish. Of course in those records I found the same nearby and associated surnames again. Mrs. Hulin was recorded as pleading for support from the English for her situation thinking her husband was dead.

As I continued to trace back to the origins it dawned on me how frustrated these people must have been to be “free” but not able to go to the courthouse and apply for a marriage bond/lisc., or how frustrating it must have been to be labeled as free, yet required to pay tax on your “wife” that you were not “really” married to…..the irony!

Somewhat of a digression from our communication about Bacon’s Rebellion, but a point I hope to stress- struggles between “planter” and plantation are clearly present, but when we place ourselves in the shoes of these Early Americans I am sure they felt much like we do today- happy to work hard, enjoyment of freedom to worship, frustrated with education (or even content to avoid school)….but certainly willing to keep getting up and going to work, hunt, and farm for an income. I think the idea that the Government should take hard earned money for taxation on a wife they were not even allowed to legally marry- well, that must have been over the top.

Many reasons have been presented by researchers to explain the frequent migrations and to explain the fact that these free persons of color always stayed on the fringes of mainstream society. I contend they were clearly avoiding discrimination by moving, but I also feel that near the TOP of the list was a desire to find the County or State where they could enjoy FULL freedom, perhaps pass for 4th generation and avoid unjust taxation. These people could, and did pick-up arms against the enemy, in some cases were educated, were mostly “good-christians”, certainly hard-working and were no doubt contributing to the good of the community- yet they were singled out during the tax season, at the voting booth and at the alter-

It was in Arthur Hulen Sr’s generation that I find the first generation of children who were “legally” married- It was also his sons who were exempt from taxes on their wives and children. Arthur himself was taxed in Halifax County, NC and paid “Black”poll taxes on his children and wife. It appears that after movement to Rowan County along the Yadkin River he and others found freedom to avoid the unjust taxation and at least his children were allowed to legally marry.

In examining the family and the growing number of surnames moving with them it is obvious they continued to move West. I feel it was not always to find better farmland but was often a commitment to move with people who still had a generation (or more) to go before becoming legally “fully” free.

It is apparant these folks stayed together generation after generation, but they certainly were not all of the same generation on the proverbial 4th generation counter- it seems family ties, friendships and business bonds remained in tact as they continued to move together regardless of who had became more “white” quicker. It is apparant from the documented history of the children to Hiram Hulin that commitments and principals remained for him and his family to those who were not yet free and for those who were “quasi” free.

Those who picked up arms during Bacon’s Rebellion were protesting several unjust acts- History books state taxation was at the core- and of course we fast forward 100 years and recall the Boston Tea Party, another protest to taxation. The irony continues to unfold- FREE white colonists did not want to be taxed unjustly. Apparant in the signed petitions from the late 1700’s and early 1800’s is a revelation to us that “negro, Indian, mulatto or mestee/mustee/mestizos” who considered themselves FREE were tired of moving and ready for the Government to start do the bending.

Just another agitator that lead-up to major conflict, I suppose another lesson in history to add to those lessons you continue to shine light on is that no free thinking, hard working American will standby long and pay unjust taxes.

Thank you, Doug, for another interesting and historically relevant post. This is a great example of how doing close research on a family line can add to our understanding of the broader political and social issues that impacted “ordinary” people (if there is such a thing!). The whole history of “free people of color” is of great interest to historians of slavery, freedom, and race relations in early American society. If we all had DNA tests, many “whites” would be surprised to learn they had African heritage, and many “blacks” would be surprised to learn that their African heritage was exceeded by European and Indian heritage. By the time I wrote Free State of Jones, I had come to realize that the U.S. western frontier presented for many people not just the hope of gaining land, but also the means for erasing the label “free person of color,” and all the disabilities it brought.

So also was one’s class standing of great significance to one’s social and political experience. Both Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676, and the Regulator Movement of 100 years later, were rebellions against local or state elites and the unfair distribution of power and land they presided over. Hatred of local elites helps explain why a good many Regulators became Tories during the Revolution. Many of the same guys the Regulators were fighting at home joined the revolution against the Mother Country–using the same language of oppression and slavery that the Regulators used, despite their own unfair practices against folks like the Hulins!

History is filled with irony, and when we study the broad mass of people at close range, we see that ever more clearly, don’t we?

Finally, to take all this one step further, I believe the Civil War was for families like the Hulins in N.C., the Collinses in Mississippi and Texas, and many other plain farmers who opposed the Confederacy, yet another example of the uneven and unjust imposition of power from above.

The term Regulators surfaces again during the postwar period. In the closing months of the Civil War, a group appeared in eastern North Carolina calling themselves “the Regulators.”

Rene Hayden, in his doctoral dissertation “Root of Wrath: Political Culture and the Origins of the First Ku-Klux Klan in North Carolina, 1830-1875,” labels these postwar Regulators as precursors to the Ku Klux Klan. Mark Bradley’s new book, “Bluecoats & Tar Heels: Soldiers and Civilians in Reconstruction North Carolina,” discusses them in even greater detail.

I’m not so certain of a direct tie between the Regulators and the Klan. For one thing, Bradley uncovered evidence that some of the groups called “Regulators” by Federal officers had black members. Also, they tended to target officials left over from the Confederate local government.

Whoever they are, the “Regulators” clearly identified with an anti-authoritarian strain in North Carolina politics that dates to the colonial period. Class warfare also certainly played a role.

Thanks for posting the sources for North Carolina’s post war “Regulators.” I too have long been fascinated by the intersection of class and anti-authoritarian principles among Southern dissenters through the ages.

I also hesitate to assume that these postwar Regulators were the direct forerunners of the KKK. Of course, it’s possible that an offshoot of these folks did provide an organizational base for the Klan, but, like you, I am struck by the anti-Confederate basis for some of the self-styled Regulators of Civil War North Carolina.

For example, in Feb., 1863, a group of Bladen County women who signed themselves as “Regulators” complained to Gov. Vance about having to give up their men to fight a slaveholders’ war (I describe them in Unruly Women, pp. 133-34). With starvation at their doors, the women proclaimed themselves ready to “make examples” of wealthy planters not willing to share their grain with suffering people.

Still, as we’ve seen time and again, class-based protests can rather easily be diverted into racial scapegoating, and the pro-Confederate Democratic Party certainly did its best to whip up racial antagonisms among economically-pressed white citizens, both in the North and the South, and with great success. But the Klan’s terrorization of white as well as black Unionists/Republicans complicates that scenario, especially in a state like N.C.

I have not read the works of either Rene Hayden or Mark Bradley, but clearly need to do so.

I have been doing genealogy research for a number of years and your two books have given me additional insight into my heritage. Thank you.

I am a descendant of the Beaman, Moore, Cranford and Hurley families of Montgomery County, North Carolina. I am currently researching and writing about the Civil War era, My Beaman ancestors were Quakers for many years. I am wondering about the religious background of the Hulin and Cranford families. (Pre-Wesleyan Methodist). Do you have any information about this?

It’s nice to meet you, Judi! I have so enjoyed conducting research on your fascinating ancestral families from the 1980s forward. I will go back to my original notes on the religious affiliations of the Hulins and Cranfords at my earliest opportunity and get back to you. Meanwhile, perhaps other readers have information on this to share.

I went back into my files concerning the 1851 visit of the Wesleyan Methodist Rev. Adam Crooks to Lovejoy Chapel in Montgomery County at the invitation of Hiram and Orrin Hulin, and Valentine Moore.

Crooks entered North Carolina in the wake of a schism in the Methodist Episcopal Church over slavery. It appears that the Hulins, Moores, and Hurleys were anti-slavery Episcopal Methodists who could no longer abide the church’s sanction of slavery. I found direct references to William Hurley and Caroline Moore (who married Jesse Hulin a few years later.) being among those Episcopal Methodists who, during Crooks’ visit, transferred their loyalties to the Wesleyans.

You’ve renewed my interest in this topic, and I plan to soon write a blog obout the rise of Wesleyan Methodism in the Montgomery/Randolph County area.

Judi, I know of two very old works that discuss the Lovejoy Chapel schism at length, naming certain Moores, Hulins, and Hurleys in the process. They are, 1) Life of Rev. Adam Crooks, A.M. by Mrs. E. W Crooks, published by the Wesleyan Methodist Publishing Co., Syracuse, 1871, and 2) Wesleyan Methodism in the South by Roy S. Nicholson, same publisher, 1933.

I found indictments of the Hulins, Hurleys, and Moores for passing “incendiary” (anti-slavery) literature in the Criminal Action Papers of Montgomery County, March 2, 1860, at the NC State Archives (NCDAH) in Raleigh.

Guion Griffis Johnson, a pioneer in social history, briefly discussed the mobbing of Adam Crooks at the Lovejoy Chapel in her classic work,Ante-Bellum North Carolina: A Social History, published by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1937.

The Crooks and Nicholson works are available in some special collections; I’m sure that UNC Chapel Hill has both. I’ve also seen Nicholson’s book listed online. Guion Johnson’s book is on the shelves of many North Carolina libraries.

I am a descendant of the Moores, Beamons and Morgans of Montgomery County. My Great, Great Grandfather was Noah W. Morgan who died while in the Confederate Army. His wife was a Beamon and his mother a Moore. His Grandfather was Valentine Moore,Sr. I have guessed that Noah joined because of conscription and that since his family was so anti-slavery, he may have bowed to the home guard. I believe he was a friend of the Hulin Brothers. Any information about my ancestors would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for sharing your family information with Renegade South. I’m sorry it has taken me this long to get back to you, but I have not been able to find any information about Noah W. Morgan in my research files for Montgomery County, NC. Since my focus was on those men who evaded or deserted Confederate service, perhaps that’s not surprising. However, I am surprised that I didn’t find him listed in my Montgomery County marriage records either, which are complete for the county.

In my notes on the federal census of 1860, I have Alexander, Joseph, and Mathew Morgan living in Fork District, Montgomery County, but no Noah. Is it possible he used a first name other than Noah?

My name is Lee E Collins Jr my father name is the same .He is from monygomery county. His1 mom name was Felita Collins . her mom name was Letta Collins al from mongomery county. I am interested in finding out there family trtee.

I was glad to read about this time period where tons of my ancestors lived! I have been told a story about an aunt who lived in Anson county who was said to be a spy during the Civil War. She was a Winfield from the Peter Winfield who married Charlotte freeman in Va. and moved to Anson with a large group of family and friends after the Revolution. She married a Tyson from the Jehu Tyson who married Millie Moye from Pitt Co. I wish there were a way to read about women spies in the Civil War. I’d love to prove this family story passed down thru the generations!